Children of asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected, but who fail to return to their home country, may be taken into care, immigration minister Beverley Hughes has warned, writes Sally Gillen.
She told a meeting of the home affairs select committee that the move was designed to deter asylum seekers from staying in the UK after their appeal had been refused.
But committee chairperson John Denham said there were fears the policy would not have the desired effect.
“There is concern that asylum seekers will not opt to return, but instead disappear into a pool of illegal workers. If that happens the government will encounter more expense and will be adding to the problems of those individual families,” he said.
The news followed a government announcement of a £10 million fund to help councils fulfil their duties towards unaccompanied asylum seekers until the age of 24, which the Association of Directors of Social Services warned would not be enough.
Peter Gilroy, chairperson of the ADSS task force on asylum seekers, said the cash was a “good start and the first time the government has acknowledged that councils with high numbers of asylum seekers have serious financial issues”.
But he said the fund, which is part of the £100 million safeguarding children grant, would “not be enough” and director at Hillingdon’s director Hugh Dunnachie added it was “woefully inadequate”.
Earlier this year, the high court ruled against Hillingdon, which receives children arriving at Heathrow, and all councils had a duty to give unaccompanied minors the same support as care leavers.
Gilroy said the new money would be for those councils in which there was a port of entry, but that other councils around the country would be unwilling to accept unaccompanied minors without guarantees that they would have the financial help to support them after 18.
